WorldTraveler151208

I’m  planning to book an Eastern Caribbean cruise with Msc but I am surprised and disappointed that Seascape will not visit the US Virgin islands like Seashore and earlier Seaside. It will be replaced with Nassau. Actually, it turns out that in the next two years none of Msc ships will go to St.Thomas. Does anyone have an idea why? Now almost every itinerary includes Nassau, and it's such an overrated place. In my opinion, Virgin Islands are much more interesting.

So far, I've only done two itineraries to the Western Caribbean, Bahamas, Jamaica, Mexico, Honduras, etc. Do you think the Seascape itinerary to Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic is still worth trying even without USVI, or maybe should I rather consider Seaside from Martinique or St. Maarten?

I’m planning to go on Norwegian Encore in 2 weeks. I know the itinerary was changed last week. Later it was also updated for the cruise that starts today and the one next week. The ship visits Nassau instead of Puerto Plata. Does anyone know what is the reason for these changes? Is it related to covid? Do you think NCL will keep changing the itinerary for upcoming cruises?

I know that the inaugural season of Explora Journeys has been on sale for some time already. Today I checked their website and I'm surprised they still don't have their own booking system. You can only book through travel agents. Do you think Explora is going to create a booking engine directly on their website in the future? I prefer to book cruises on my own. I wish I could check which cabins (if any) are still available for the voyage I’m interested in.

It is clear now.  Thank you for your help.

Hello, 

I booked a cruise with Celebrity for next year (cruise with confidence terms no longer apply on this date). Is it possible to change to another date, without paying a penalty? I heard there is a fee for changing the date, but I can't find any specific information.

Thank you in advance for all responses

Does anyone know when Eclipse, Solstice or Infinity will be refurbished?  I know that the revolution program will include all ships in the future, but is there any chance that it will happen before summer 2022? I am considering booking a cruise on one of these three ships for the next summer, but I prefer to wait until they are renovated.

5 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

I believe that a Princess like Italian flavored brand would to be more than accepted in the market. 100k GT ships with 3k guests, half inclusive, classical "old style" Affordable Elegant cruising experience, tweaked here and there to cope with the contemporary needs, at basically starting around, maybe little bit above current Aurea average prices would to be great! Some markets are having a surge on demand for upper mainstream, these days.

Yes, I agree. The differences in the cruise industry are growing.  Cruise lines like Carnival, Costa, Msc, actually also Princess build huge ships for mass market. On the other hand, the ultra-luxury market segment is developing very fast at the moment. Unfortunately, nobody wants to build new medium-sized ships. Maybe one exception is Virgin, but personally, I don't really like the design of their ships.

I heard that prices will start at 3700 Euro per person, per week, so it will definitely be much more expensive than Msc Yacht Club.  At the moment it is difficult to say if this is a lot, because we don’t know what the cabins will look like and what will be included in the price. I hope it will be an ultra all-inclusive concept like Regent.

I wouldn't compare Explora to Viking Ocean.  For now, the renderings only show the pool and the lobby, but I expect the decor to be much more opulent than the Scandinavian design on Viking. I also assume that Explora will offer a more elegant cruising experience than Viking, including butler service etc.

So far I really like this concept.  The demand for luxury cruises is growing and I believe it could be a great success. I’m just afraid that after the launch of this new cruise line, Msc Yacht Club will fall apart completely. The quality is getting worse already. I expect that the best crew members and the more demanding clientele will move to Explora, so Yacht Club will become a mass market products just like the rest of Msc.

25 minutes ago, sidari said:

The UK site still shows Kotor and Dubrovnik apart from the July sailings.

Indeed, there is still the original itinerary on the Italian website too, but after logging into my booking (departure 3 July) I see the changed one. I think that’s the more reliable source. I also checked out of curiosity on the German website and unfortunately it also shows the new itinerary with Split for 3 July. 

13 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

What's interesting is that while the US site for MSC shows Split instead of Kotor, the Italian site doesn't.

Yes, I also noticed they didn't update the itinerary everywhere, but I logged into my booking and it shows the itinerary with Split. 

22 minutes ago, sidari said:

Split is a nice port to visit, Kotor though is more picturesque and the sail out is very good. We were on Majestic Princes passing the area which is narrow and high when they played the love boat tune on the ships horn, the echo was great.

I know Split is nice too, but I've been there before.  This time I really wanted to visit Montenegro. I can imagine the departure from Kotor must have been a unique experience. 
I still don't know what caused the change. If there are any problems with covid restrictions, In my opinion they could at least do a panoramic cruise in the gulf of Kotor without shore excursions. In this case, even watching the views from the ship would be nice. That’s what Tui Cruises is currently doing in Sweden. 

3 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Really? That's interesting. My wife and I are very likely going to replace our upcoming Seaview cruise with the Splendida out of Trieste the month after yours. Just out of curiosity, and if you don't mind sharing, are you a US resident? And which site did you use? US or not? We went ahead and booked our flights yesterday to Venice in anticipation of this cruise. It's surprising, because I thought Montenegro was open to tourists. Our only concern at this point is whether MSC will change its current policy of only allowing Schengen area residents +Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. Thanks for posting this!

I am not from the US, I live in Europe, so I should get to Trieste without any problems. From July they are going to introduce vaccination passport to travel freely between EU countries.
Unfortunately I have no idea if Msc is going to change the policy for other countries. Actually I have a similar problem, but the other way round. I have a reservation for a cruise from the States in September, but probably I won’t be able to come. As far as I know, at the moment there are no plans to reopen the US for European tourists.

I have a reservation for the Msc Splendida cruise from Trieste in July. Today, I noticed on the website that they changed the itinerary and replaced Kotor (Montenegro) with Split (Croatia). As always, I didn’t even receive a notification about this from Msc Cruises.

Does anyone have any idea what happened?  These itineraries were established quite recently, so I thought Msc took all Covid restrictions into account and I didn’t expect any changes. Did Montenegro decide not to allow cruise ships? 
I'm pretty disappointed about this.  For me and probably for many passengers, Kotor was the most interesting port of this cruise.

By the way, does anyone know what are the current travel restrictions in the UK?  Not being a UK resident could I come there from the EU with a negative test?

I hope that as an international cruise line Msc will also accept guests from abroad on these cruises in Great Britain.  I have booked a cruise to Iceland with Msc for this summer, but I am pretty sure it will not happen.  The one in the UK would be a nice substitute.

6 hours ago, philsuarez said:

I think it may be likely that MSC Virtuosa is redeployed to the UK rather than the summer season out of Kiel what with further lockdowns across Europe

I also think it is probable that Msc will choose Virtuosa for the restart in the UK.  The ship is still in the shipyard in western France so it could reach Southampton in one day. It would probably be a better choice than Magnifica, because Virtuosa is brand new, has more attractions, restaurants and Yacht Club. Since the possibility to go ashore will probably be limited, such a ship would be better.

Do you think it's fair that the RCCL and Celebrity Cruises already require the Covid-19 vaccine for the Odyssey, Adventure, and Millennium cruises, given that currently in most countries younger people don't have the chance to get vaccinated even if they want?  For example in many European Union countries  and Canada, the vaccination process is very slow.  Most people will probably not be able to get vaccinated in the coming months, and Odyssey of the seas sailing in Israel and Greece since May will accept only fully vaccinated guests. Isn't that a kind of discrimination?

I just don't understand why did they change it so suddenly just two weeks before.  When they were planning these cruises a few months ago, they could have thought about Easter.  I know that on Easter for 3 days the whole Italy will be treated as red zone, but I also know that Msc can imbark guests even in a red zone, because they have already done so.  They just couldn't organize shore excursions in Genoa on Sunday and in Civitavecchia on Monday.  But did they really create all this chaos just because of shore excursions?

9 minutes ago, crazyank said:

Welcome to dealing with MSC.  

I know Msc has strange ideas sometimes, I've been cruising with them for years, but I haven't experienced anything like that before.

Indeed, there are still many free cabins, even more than yesterday. Apparently people are canceling this cruise.  I decided to do the same.  Another problem is that they shortened this cruise from 7 to 5 days (Tuesday- Sunday) and the price remained the same as I paid for 7 days. This is not acceptable.

8 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

2022?  

No, 2021. Just in two weeks.

I had a reservation for Msc Grandiosa for Easter departing on April 4th from Genoa.  Msc Cruises changed the cruise date to April 6th, which is already after Easter, and they did not even bother to inform me. I wouldn’t know anything but I accidentally noticed the incorrect, new date on a Facebook ad.  In addition, I booked two cabins on deck 16 for my family and I underlined  that they should be close to each other. Msc changed the cabin numbers and now we have one on deck 14 and the other one on deck 18.  I am furious and disappointed.  I know that they have the right to change the cabin number, although it is very annoying, but since when are they allowed to change the cruise date and not even inform you about it? 😡

On 3/2/2021 at 5:09 PM, Até said:

Additionally odd is the Seaside Italy/Malta sailings in May have zero Yacht Club availability, only the Med sailings in June have YC cabins available.  In fact the choice is only inside, ocean view or balcony - no suites at all.  To me it's a sign MSC is not sure those May Seaside sailings will go, it keeps the option to easily push the bookings over to Grandiosa if sales aren't good enough.

I noticed it too.  All higher categories are not available and by the available categories it is not possible to select the cabin number.  I hope it's just a temporary problem in the booking system and that they will fix it.  I really hope to go on Seaside soon. I thought maybe Msc transferred the reservations of passengers who were supposed to depart from Genoa on Seaside on the same dates for the Italy, France and Spain itinerary, as the departure dates from Genoa are the same as in the original schedule. This would explain why the availability of the cabins is so limited.

For this moment I would not count that Virtuosa will be launched before summer holidays, as Msc has decided that the second ship to restart will be Seaside in the Mediterranean from May. So I do not think that they will add another ship earlier than in June. It is difficult to predict what will happen in the northern Europe because it all depends on when Germany, Denmark and Norway will allow cruise ships. Even if they will decide to add Virtuosa, they might change the original itinerary.
By the way, it is a pity that Seaside will not start already in April, for the Easter break.  I was looking at Grandiose for this period and the availability of cabins is very limited, at least in the YC.

Recently, I’ve noticed that two Carnival ships (Legend and Spirit) were registered in Malta, while all others, older and newer, sail under the flag of Panama.  I understand the general idea of the flags of convenience, but why would Carnival register two random ships in a different country?  Is it just a coincidence or is there a reason?

14 minutes ago, George C said:

 Might consider msc yacht club they have a great ship within ship , loved Seaside they had fantastic lounge area with baby grand piano and live music most of the night, outside area has pool , restaurant, hot tubs and lots of chairs, drink package and WiFi is included. 

Actually, I know Msc Yacht Club very well, I cruise very often in the YC and I love it.  However, Msc is mainly focused on the Mediterranean and Caribbean, and I want to explore some regions that they do not offer, such as Alaska or the Mexican Riviera.  I have also tried the Haven by NCL and I liked it too, but now I want to give the Retreat a chance. I am generally a fan of the Ship within ship concept, which allows to be on a large ship, yet in a more intimate atmosphere.

The pool is not that important for me. It's just a pity that the Retreat Lounge is so poorly located compared to the panoramic Top Sail Lounge on Msc, or the Horizon Lounge on NCL Bliss and Joy.  It's always my favorite spot on a ship. It’s weird that on the Edge Class there isn’t any panoramic lounge at all.